Microsoft wins “Best Multinational Workplaces award” in Europe. The Great Place to Work® Institute recently announced that Microsoft is the inaugural winner of the Best Multinational Workplaces 2011 in Europe award. This year, 1,380 companies participated in the study, representing more than 1.5 million employees, making it the largest study of its kind. More than 12,000 Microsoft employees participated in the survey across Europe. For more detail, read this post on the Official Microsoft Blog.

Windows Phone 7 is a hit with busy parents. “In this age of everyone and their uncle owning a smart phone it can be pretty tricky to know what kind to get. So many choices, so little time, right? Well, maybe it will help if we tell you that we’ve never seen a phone that’s more fun than a Windows Phone 7.” That’s straight out of this May 29th review of Windows Phone 7 by People Magazine, which goes on to talk about why Windows Phones are a great choice for busy parents (as if there were any other kind of parent.) Also, check out this Tuesday post on the Windows Phone Blog from blogger, Microsoft employee and full-time mom Katy Asher, who writes about the benefits of Windows Phone.

Bing brings a new streetside view. Take a look at a Bing map in Streetside view and you’ll notice that Microsoft has made a lot of changes. These changes represent a significant enhancement for desktop browsers, enabling users to quickly pan up and down the street to see the neighborhood and find businesses. Bing is doing this by providing street level panoramas so you can take a virtual walk through the streets with a view of locations and landmarks. For more detail on the new feature, read this Tuesday post on the Bing Search Blog. That’s a glimpse of the new streetside view below:

Wireless desktop 2000: A guard dog on your desktop. On Thursday, Microsoft announced a wireless mouse and keyboard combo designed with security in mind – the new Wireless Desktop 2000 – whichincorporates Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit technology to help secure your personal and business information by encrypting what you type. This is Microsoft’s first keyboard to feature AES 128-bit encryption, which industry leaders consider to be one of the most secure encryption standards. Get more detail in this post on the Microsoft Hardware Blog.

Phew! What a week it’s been! Thanks for stopping by for this edition of Weekend Reading. Stay tuned to the Official Microsoft Blog – more news about E3 is coming next week!